Past The Screen
by Starry Glasses
Summary: Apparently an eight-year old Evan likes archers and isn't strong enough to kill a ribbon pig. It's possible that I'm causing changes to the Maple Story storyline but that's exactly why I'm trying to do things to fix it. "Hey Evan don't you think dragons are really cool?"
1. It's my English teacher's fault

_Past The Screen_

Chapter One

* * *

I blame my English teacher.

Seriously, it's all her fault that I'm in Edelstein and stuck in the body of a seven-year old.

…

Okay, maybe it's not _entirely_ her fault. Seeing as how I was the one who decided to procrastinate doing the essay I can admit to taking part of the blame.

Enough of that though, I'm sure you're probably wondering what in the world I'm talking about. It's actually sort-of a long story though.

It starts off like this.

* * *

I stared at my computer screen, eyebrows furrowed in deep concentration. Nothing could distract me. I was in too deep thought-

_RING_

Oh screw it.

I averted my eyes from the blank page of my Microsoft Word document and reached over to my left to grab my phone which I had earlier haphazardly thrown on to my bed. I swear my arm felt like it was going to rip out of its socket with how much I was stretching it but I managed to grab my dear phone before that happened.

Now I'm sure that most people would ask, "Why didn't you just stand up and walk to your bed and pick it up?"

The reason is because I am lazy. It's as simple as that really.

Looking at my phone I saw a text from my friend Riley.

_Hey Elissa! It's Riley, how's your essay for English going? I just finished mine._

Frick you Riley.

I threw my phone back on my bed and held my head in my hands.

Usually I was great at writing essays but this one topic absolutely stumped me.

The topic was: "Where do you see yourself in ten years?"

My answer to that? I have no idea.

You see, I don't really like to lie. I try to tell the truth as often as possible and I feel terrible on the inside when I lie. So I don't.

Now since I don't want to lie, my only option for that essay is to write that I do not know where I see myself in ten years. This however is actually not at all an option because the essay has to be at least two pages long and I do not see how I can turn 'I do not know' into a two page long essay.

Sighing, I closed my eyes and internally resolved to start on it later. I still had plenty of time after all.

Looking back at my computer I closed Word and opened up Google Chrome. Then I couldn't help but smile as my homepage loaded.

_Maple Story_

Yeah, my home page is the Maple Story website. There's nothing wrong with that. Most of the time I go on the internet is to log into my Maple Story account and start-up the game anyways so I just decided to make it my home page. Smart huh?

After logging in and doing all that stuff I waited a minute or so for it to start-up. When it finally loaded I clicked on _Bera _then channel 8 (because that's the awesome channel) and selected my battle mage character _BattleQueen_.

Okay so I know the name is kind of lame but I seriously hate coming up with character names so I just slap on some words and think to myself _okay this is decent I'll go with this_. And besides, it fits with my job. Battle Mage. Battle Queen. Yeah I'm a queen got a problem with that?

Then of course I entered my PIC and I happily watched the screen fade to black and waited for that chime-like sound effect-

Oh _there _it is.

It wouldn't be Maple Story without the awesome sound effects. No it would not.

Patiently I waited for the black to fade and show the map that I was on…

Oh shit, TELEPORT!

Ugh. Damn it Maple Story. Why do you have to let me start _right in the god damn middle _of a map where all the monsters are?

* * *

After getting to a monster-free platform I checked to see if anyone on my buddy list was on. Sadly, no one was on and I couldn't help the frown that made its way onto my face.

I wanted to do a party quest damn it. Grinding is boring and the only other way to train is by doing a party quest but I can't do a party quest without other players and oh my god it's so awkward doing a party quest with strangers. There's practically no talking at all except for an occasional command or question here and there.

_Hey did you get that thing?_

_Yeah I did, did you kill that monster?_

_Uh huh._

_Oh okay. Cool._

…

_You guys ready for the boss fight?_

_Yeah. _

_Okay. _

See? It's awkward. At least when I do party quests with my friends it's so much livelier.

_DAMN IT STOP KSING ME _

_WHAT DO YOU MEAN KSING YOU YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO GET THAT THING FROM THAT OTHER MONSTER_

…

_Crap I ran out of HP pots can I have some of yours?_

_You're a freaking bishop you don't need HP pots_

_Wait shit I meant MP pots sorry lol_

There. It's not awkward and it's a lot funner. Yeah I know funner isn't a word but who cares.

Anyways, now I was in Leafre just chilling. I wonder what I should do now-

Oh look a text box thingy. What can I help you with Maple Administrator…?

"Eh?" The sound came out of my mouth before I could stop it. I frowned. The text box didn't look different. There was the Maple Administrator standing to the left which was pretty normal but it was the text on the right that caused my confusion.

_Soul Warp Starting…_

And instead of their being two buttons _Accept _and _Decline _there was only one.

_Cancel_

Wait what? Soul Warp? Is that a new game feature? Shoot maybe I should have looked to see if there were any updates made.

I briefly contemplated whether I should cancel it. The _Warp _part of it made it sound like my character was going to be teleported. On one hand I didn't really want to teleport anywhere because Leafre was my current training spot. On the other hand, I didn't want to miss out on any events because that might mean missing out on cool items.

For maybe about half a minute I debated the pros and cons of clicking cancel and not clicking cancel.

That was my big mistake.

_DING! _

The sound tore me away from my thinking. Looking back at my laptop screen I saw the text being rewritten.

_Soul Warp Activating_

_Thank you for participating _

Oh shit.

All of a sudden I could feel my eyelids getting heavy. My vision blurred and I heard something akin to a chime ring. How familiar it seemed…

* * *

Warm…

It was too damn warm.

I groaned and tried to throw the blanket off-

Wait… _blanket? _

My eyes snapped open to show a light blue ceiling.

Huh? A light blue ceiling? That didn't make any sense because my room didn't have a light blue ceiling. No other room in my house had a light blue ceiling either…

OH MY GOD WAS I KIDNAPPED?!

_Smack. _

That was me smacking myself. That was such a stupid thought that I just had to smack myself. I mean, if someone had kidnapped me then why would I be in a nice comfortable bed?

Speaking of nice and comfortable beds though…

I turned my eyes to the bed I was sitting in. I couldn't help but grimace at the color scheme.

It was all _blue. _

Sure it's not like they were all the same shade of blue but still…

The blanket was a navy blue, the bed sheet was sky blue, and my pillow cases were azure. That's way too much blue in my opinion.

I frowned again, realizing something else.

I was pale. Looking at my arms over the blanket I saw that they were a rather unhealthy looking pale.

This however made absolutely no sense because I distinctly remember going to the beach with Riley and the others just a few days ago. Now that gave me a pretty nice tan along with some not so nice tan lines. (Which I completely blame Riley for because going to the beach was her idea in the first place.)

And to add to fact that I was now pale I was also wearing a nightgown. You want to guess what color said nightgown was?

_It was freaking blue. _

Growling I stood up from the bed and started walking towards the door. I wanted answers and I swear on my name _Elissa Saris _that I was going to get them.

While making my way to the door though I wasn't really paying attention to anything else in the room and so when my head turned slightly to the left and I caught my reflection in the (damn blue) vanity mirror I just stared for a couple of seconds.

Then I _screamed. _

Because my hair was _purple_ and my eyes were _blue_ and _what the hell is going on? _

Now some of you might be wondering _how did she not notice her hair was purple? _And the answer to that people is because it's in a bun and _why the heck is my hair purple. _

The blue eyes didn't really bother me much because I figured it was just contacts but the hair…

A tug here and there revealed that _no Elissa it's not a wig_. And a couple of hand waves at the reflection revealed that _oh my god yes that's me. _

And just to top it all off, a woman and man came bursting through the bedroom door just seconds after that. And you know if I wasn't so terrified of my situation then I would have laughed because the woman was holding a frying pan and the man was holding a fire extinguisher and it looked really funny but I was in fact terrified of my situation so I did what a normal person would've done.

I screamed again.

"Eliza sweetie what's wrong? Why are you screaming?" The woman took a few steps towards me. She had long purple hair tied into a pony tail and pale skin. Her frying pan lowered but her grey eyes darted across the room looking for any signs of danger.

The man frowned and lowered his fire extinguisher. (dude what were you planning on doing with that thing anyway?) He had short black hair (thank you for being normal) that curled slightly at the ends along with tan skin and blue eyes. "You shouldn't even be out of bed young lady. You have a high fever and you need your rest."

I was already confused and now feeling tired so I just said what was on my mind at that time which was, "Who the hell are you people?"

I probably shouldn't have swore but eh, it was a slip of tongue really.

This however made both adults freeze and the woman actually dropped her frying pan and brought her hands up to cover her mouth as her eyes widened. The man on the other hand unfroze after a second or two and left the room cursing under his breath.

This left me with the woman who was staring at me in shock.

Awkward…

Eventually though she regained her composure but seemed kind of sad. Hesitantly she took a step forward to which I responded to with a step back.

"Do you really not know who I am Eliza?" She asked sadly.

I was half tempted to tell her _hey you're saying my name wrong, it's Elissa not Eliza _but she looked genuinely upset and I didn't want to upset her even more.

After a couple of seconds I internally shrugged and did what I did best, telling the truth.

"Uhm, yeah. I don't know who you are, or that man who just left earlier." I said lamely. I mean, what else was I supposed to say? "Sorry." I added as an after thought, looking down at my feet. Crap, that didn't even sound sorry to _me._

I heard her sigh quietly and looked back up at her. She looked unsure and kept fidgeting. I frowned. If she had something to say then she should just say it instead of-

"Eliza sweetie, I'm your mother." She said, smiling a bit at the end.

Now _I_ was the one that froze.

Wait… _what?_

* * *

**Hi. **

**I guess thank you for reading this…?**

**The idea for this just appeared in my head a couple of days ago and so I decided to write it out. **

**I plan for this story to be pretty long and my goal for this is to make Maple Story seem like an actual real world. Or as real as possible I guess. **

**I'll have Elissa/Eliza here meet a bunch of characters from the game of course. After all, to make Maple Story seem like a real world the people living in it need to be real too. **

**I appreciate feedback on my writing since this is pretty much my first time writing a fanfiction. (There was this one other time but that was a couple of years ago so I don't count it.)**

**Next time on Past The Screen: Oh hi Claudine you're a lot younger than I thought you'd be.**

**-Starry Glasses**


	2. We're named after monsters

_Past The Screen_

Chapter Two

* * *

Okay… I think I just misheard what she just said because I could have sworn I heard her say that she was my mother.

I blinked once, twice. Nope, she still had purple hair and grey eyes. There was no way she could be my mom. My mom had dark brown hair and brown eyes.

"Are you sure about that? Being my mom and all…" I trailed off, not really sure where I was going with that.

She walked over towards me and I eyed her warily. Imagine my surprise when she passed by me and took a seat on the bed. Smiling, she patted the space next to her and I cautiously moved to sit by her. Of course I left space between us though. She was still a stranger but she at least seemed nice.

"What do you remember?" She asked, causing me to grimace. Something was off, I could tell. It wasn't my hair and eyes or my 'mom.' It was something else...

I was forgetting something, something important...

However my thoughts were interrupted when I heard a distinctively male voice coming from behind the door.

"I believe she has amnesia, she doesn't seem to remember me or Leila."

As the doorknob turned I belatedly realized that it was the voice of the man who had been holding the fire hydrant earlier.

Huh, if the woman was apparently my mom then does that make him my dad? He seems too old to be a brother…

The door opened and yup, that was him. 'Dad' walked in and motioned for someone else to do so too. The woman who entered the room however caused me to gawk in absolute surprise.

What the… Is that who I think it is? She looks kind of like...

"Dr. Claudine once again I just want to apologize for calling you over so late at night." He said as he closed the door behind the young woman._  
_

Dr. Claudine apparently didn't seem bothered in the least and offered him a polite smile. "There is no need to apologize Mr. Hertsh. In fact, I'm glad you called me. I was getting quite worried about Eliza's fever. It's good to see her up and moving about." She walked towards me and 'mom' and placed her hand on my forehead then proceeded to take my temperature.

"Her fever has gone down drastically. She should be fine with a bit more rest along with plenty of liquids." Dr. Claudine noted. Mom and dad nodded, dad leaving the room presumably to get me some water. (Oh how nice of him)

Claudine's eyes however took on a more serious glint. Oh wow she's kind of intimidating.

"I'm particularly concerned about your supposed amnesia, Eliza." While saying this she walked over to the side of the room and brought over a chair so she could sit in front of me.

My thoughts raced, oh shoot what was I supposed to say? I didn't actually have amnesia. I just seemed to be in another person's body-

_Wait. _

Another person's body…?

Yeah… it was as if my soul had been switched… or rather, it had been _warped_ into another person's-

"Tell me Eliza, what do you know about Edelstein?"

My train of thought abruptly crashed. Drat, why'd you have to interrupt me Dr. Claudine?

Shaking my head I contemplated my answer to her question. Well…

"Edelstein is a place isn't it?" I answered her question with a question. Ugh, my voice sounds so high. Just how old is this body anyway? Six years old?

Dr. Claudine smiled at me. If that was meant to reassure me it didn't because now I'm even more scared. She's supposed to be the leader of the Resistance isn't she? Oh god…

"Yes it's a place. In fact, you are currently in Edelstein and are also a certified citizen of Edelstein." She explained.

…

I am _where _and I am a _what? _

Wait a second... if I'm in Edelstein then that can only mean one thing.

I'm in Maple Story.

…

"Ouch!" I rubbed my arm, trying to relieve myself of the pain. Pinching my own arm probably wasn't my smartest idea.

Claudine (adding the _doctor _part of it sounds too long) watched me with slight amusement while my mom frowned.

"You know about Edelstein but you don't know that it's where you live?" Mom questioned. Oh yeah, that seemed kind of fishy.

I smiled sheepishly. "I can only remember some things…"

That seemed like a good answer. It wasn't entirely a lie, but my stomach still churned at telling the half-truth, half-lie. Isn't there such a thing as partial amnesia anyways? It seemed probable.

Claudine looked thoughtful. Now that I'm actually focusing on her I noticed she seemed younger than she did in the game. To me, in the game she seemed to be in her middle to late twenties but now… She looked maybe twenty or twenty one at most.

"Aren't you kind of young to be a doctor?"

Wait… that high voice that just spoke was _me. _

Crap, I didn't mean to say that out loud…

Thankfully, Claudine didn't seem offended but my mom on the other hand seemed like she wanted to reprimand me.

I inched away from her a bit. I didn't like being scolded.

"Don't worry Mrs. Hertsh. I don't take offense to that. It's a normal question that I've been asked before." Dr. Claudine reassured. "I'm still in training right now so technically I'm not a fully fledged doctor yet. However I'm expected to complete my training soon and since I handle some appointments originally for my mother many of the citizens here in Edelstein have already labeled me as 'Doctor' Claudine."

That caused my eyes to widen. Did she just say _mother? _

"Your mother is a doctor?" I questioned. The game never mentioned that Claudine had a mother…

Wait. Of course she had a mother, how else would she have been born?

"Yes Eliza, my mother is a doctor. She is in fact head doctor of Edelstein Hospital. I hope to be as good a doctor as her." Claudine said, sounding just a bit proud of her mother and determined to reach her goal.

I hummed to myself. So Claudine's mom was a doctor huh? That's cool…

Yawning, I rubbed my eyes. Wow, I just got up and I'm tired already?

Claudine took this as her cue and stood up from her chair. "Well since you seem to be quite okay I'll take my leave. Mrs. Hertsh I don't recommend her going to school tomorrow, also don't forget what I said earlier." She picked up the chair and placed it where it originally was.

Mom stood up from her spot on the bed and said her thanks to Claudine to which the doctor replied with, "You're welcome Mrs. Hertsh, have a good evening."

At this point I was already lying on the bed, not even having enough energy to insult the color scheme. (I was _really_ tired.)

Mom laughed a bit at seeing me before fixing the bed so that I was lying underneath the blankets and properly resting my head on the pillow. It was at this time that dad came into the room holding a cup of water.

Kind of late don't you think dad?

He seemed a bit put out that I was ready to go back to sleep and when asked by mom why he took so long he said, "The twins wanted to leave their room to see their sis. I had to convince them to go back to sleep since there's still school tomorrow, or actually today, seeing as how it's past midnight already."

Wow it was past midnight and Claudine still came over to check up on me? That's some dedication… Now I feel kind of bad.

Dad noticed this and smile reassuringly. "Don't worry Eliza, Dr. Claudine told me she was already awake when I called so you didn't disturb her sleep."

That caused me to smile a bit before I yawned again. My eyelids felt heavy and I could feel my mind drifting.

"Good night Eliza." Was the last thing I heard before I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"Should…wake…"

"She…amnesia…don't you remember…"

Ugh, go away. I'm trying to sleep here.

"Do you think…us?"

I frowned. Who was talking? It sounded like some kids…

"She moved! She's awake!" A high pitched voice squealed. Okay, that's a girl's voice for sure.

"She's frowning Alishar, we woke her up more like it." A slightly lower voice stated. Huh, this voice was still a bit high but sounded more like a little boy's voice.

Cautiously I opened my eyes to see a little boy and girl. They were probably about five years old.

The boy had curly purple hair and grey eyes. The girl on the other hand had straight black hair and clear blue eyes. Both however had pale skin.

Wait a second… Were they the twin's dad was talking about last night?

The girl after noticing I actually was awake beamed brightly at me, blue eyes practically sparkling. "Hi Eliza, if you don't remember who I am I'm Alishar your little sister!" She pointed to herself while saying this before pointing to the boy next to her and continuing, "That's Zeno and he's your little brother. We're twins."

My eyes widened, Alishar and Zeno? Weren't those two bosses in Maple Story?

Wait a second…

Wasn't Eliza a boss in Maple Story too?

…

Its official, my parents are weird. I mean, who names their children after monsters?

That sounded kind of wrong…

"Are you okay sis?" The boy, Zeno asked me. He looked particularly concerned and so did his twin, Alishar.

Smiling, I reassured them that I was alright. Alishar seemed to believe me but Zeno still seemed a bit skeptic.

Rolling my eyes I gestured towards the clock on the side of the room. I didn't realize it was there last night but I noticed it when I woke up. The clock read 7:30am and didn't dad say last night that there was school today?

"Shouldn't you two be heading to school?" I asked them. They both looked at the clock and their eyes widened. Ironically, it was also at that time that we all heard dad yelling from behind the door.

"Ali! Zeno! Where are you? We need to go or else you're going to be late."

Both of them then ran towards the door shouting their goodbyes and Alishar even threw in a "You don't remember but you owe me five thousand mesos!"

"Sure I do." I called after them, dragging out the sure. They both laughed at that and I couldn't help but giggle a bit.

However my smile faded and my posture drooped as I actually thought about my situation.

…_I was still here._

_I was in Edelstein._

_I was in Maple Story. _

_This wasn't a dream. _

_And I really am…_

…_Far away from my home. _

I brought my knees up and buried my face in my arms.

I wasn't going to cry.

Sure, I'm in a different world and in a different body but…

It could be worse.

So I need to be strong and smile because this isn't just any world, this is _Maple Story. _

It's a world full of magic and things that don't exist in my world.

And maybe… maybe there's a type of magic that can send me back.

So I need to make the best of my situation and be productive because I _will _find a way to get back to my world.

Grinning, I got out of my bed and walked to the window on the side of my room. Pushing back the curtains I saw many people walking on the sidewalk and cars driving through the street.

This will be interesting.

* * *

**I wanted to keep writing but this seemed like a good place to stop. **

**And yeah, Claudine's mom is a doctor. Or at least she is in this story.**

**I'm pretty sure that the game doesn't talk about her mom so this could entirely be possible. Maple Story doesn't exactly go into detail about things like this for any of the characters. **

**Does Eliza seem like a Mary sue? I don't think she does but I'd like input on that.**

**Oh and the way I'm doing mesos is that 1USD = 1000 mesos.**

**So that would mean that Eliza apparently owes Alishar 5 dollars huh. **

**Next time on Past the Screen: Library trip to get to know more about this world. **


	3. The Black Wings are scary

_Past The Screen_

Chapter Three

* * *

_Lupins are not an aggressive type of monster. They happen to love bananas and are never found without one. It is because of this fact that many find it confusing about why the Lupins main style of attacking is throwing bananas. _

_Lupins are rather docile creatures and will not attack unless provoked. Seeing as how they do not have the proper build to endure attacks they prefer long-range fights where they can throw whatever is within reach which is almost always bananas. Another thing to keep in mind about Lupins is that they will retreat when left with few bananas. This retreat is usually only temporary since they are often able to get more bananas from the trees that they live in._

_This particular type of monster is found in Ellinia, specifically where banana trees grow. It is highly unlikely to find Lupins anywhere else excluding the many Monster Zoos throughout the Maple World and-_

"Mom, dad we're home!"

My reading was sadly interrupted by the twins' return from school. Sighing, I closed _A Monster Encyclopedia by Soria Resaly _after bookmarking my page and stood up from the couch.

Not a second later both Alishar and Zeno ran into the living room grinning. They each were holding a white box with their names written on it.

"Look Eli! I made you cookies at school!" Alishar beamed, shoving her box into my face.

Zeno didn't miss a beat. "I made you brownies Eli! I know you love brownies!"

"Aw, thanks you two." I said while taking both boxes. They both were so sweet, and _so _cute. I didn't understand how people could say that they hated their siblings.

"Hey you don't have to take Zeno's box Eli. Mines are so much better." Uh oh.

"Not even! Ms. Summer said mine was exce- exceptional." I noticed Zeno's ears turn red as he fumbled over the word.

Ugh, I take that back. I guess I _kind of_ understand why people would say that.

It was at that moment that mom chose to walk in. "Are you two fighting again? How many times do I have to scold you two before you finally get along?" She reprimanded before turning to me looking apologetic. "I'm sorry. Did they ruin your rest Eliza?"

My eyes widened and I smiled slightly. "Don't worry they didn't ruin my rest. I wasn't sleeping anyways, just reading."

That caused mom to frown, and she noticed the rather large book I had placed on the coffee table. She shooed the twins out before demanding I get some sleep instead of reading.

"I swear, even without your memories you're still a bookworm. If you keep this up you'll end up needing glasses."

My only response to that was a sheepish smile before lying back down on the couch. What she said was probably true. As Elissa I had really thick glasses because my eyesight was absolutely horrible.

I hummed to myself. Glasses weren't so bad, contacts on the other hand… I shivered at the thought. I didn't have anything against people who wore contacts but the idea of sticking something in my eye even if it was to improve my vision would never sit well with me.

With that thought, I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to claim me.

* * *

In my dream I was running. I was in a long corridor that seemed almost never-ending if not for the faint light I saw ahead of me.

My breathing was hard and heavy and my chest hurt from exhaustion but I didn't stop. I didn't know why but I _had _to keep running.

There was something… something I needed to do.

All of a sudden I was there at the end of the corridor. The light was starting to fade and I could see-

"Hey look, she's not wearing blue. It's a miracle Macey."

"Shh! You're going to wake her up Luke!"

The voices interrupted my dream and I could feel myself already forgetting what I had just dreamed about. I think there was a light? Or maybe not? Ugh, why did I have to forget dreams so quickly!

I opened my eyes to see two people, a boy and a girl. The boy had short black hair and green eyes while the girl had long blonde hair tied into a ponytail and brown eyes.

I frowned. They both looked around my age. Were they Eliza's friends? Tossing my thoughts about my dream aside I paid attention to them instead.

The boy, Luke I guessed, grinned at me. "Hey Eli, do you remember me? My name's Luke" Yup, I was right.

Shaking my head I sat up and yawned. Then I turned my head to the blonde.

"Sorry but I don't remember who you are either, but from what I heard earlier I'm guessing you're Macey…?"

The girl nodded and smiled before looking a bit guilty. "I'm so sorry we woke you up, your mom said you needed lots of rest."

I rolled my eyes. Really, I was just fine. Looking at the clock I saw that I slept for about an hour. Good enough.

Both Luke and Macey stepped back as I stood up from the couch and stretched. I looked at the two of them and smiled.

"So who wants to come with me to explore Edelstein?"

* * *

I would just like to say that being stuck at home is _boring. _Seriously, I just wanted to get out of this house and get some nice fresh air. I don't see what the big deal is about three seven-year-olds walking around alone in a city.

I highly doubt there's much crime here compared to Earth seeing as how there's awesome police officers such as Belle (who I have not met yet but _really _want to) and already scary people like the Black Wings (the ones that I do not want to meet at all.)

Besides, Alishar and Zeno walk to and from school by themselves and they're perfectly fine. (And then Luke pointed out that the school is basically down the street from our house but still.)

Eventually I was able to convince mom to let us walk around the city after Luke mentioned that his older brother could keep an eye on us.

Apparently Luke's brother, Owen was fourteen and looked pretty much like an older version of Luke except that his hair was a bit more spiky. He was also kind of cute but seeing as how I was (physically) seven and him being fourteen I figured it probably wouldn't work out well.

At first he didn't want to do it but I had Luke and Macey help me guilt him into it. It's been so long since I've been able to use 'puppy dog eyes' and I'm definitely going to make the most of it while I can.

I'm not going to go into too much detail about the trip but I can say that overall it was pretty fun.

At first we went to the library (at my request) and I got the pleasure of seeing that it was _huge_ and absolutely full of books, books, and more books. (If you couldn't tell by now I happen to really love reading.) However the temptation to go borrow maybe a dozen or so of them was thoroughly squashed after I realized that it would look a _little _weird for a seven-year old girl to borrow a bunch of thick books containing no pictures. And I probably wouldn't have been able to carry them all anyways.

After my tearful goodbye to the library Owen took the three of us sightseeing around Edelstein. Apparently there was even a museum full of pretty rocks from the Verne Mines along with a bit of the town's history. Our ancestors built this city a long, long time ago after a disease killed off many people from the different villages that had originally existed. In order to survive all the villages united and created the town known today as Edelstein. There was some other information the museum tour guide said but I was seven and had a short attention span. Do the math.

We also went to the arcade where I found out a bunch of things about me and my friends.

Apparently I suck at shooting games no matter whose body I'm in but I'm still boss at dancing games.

"_This is level one Eli, come on I don't think it's possible for you to suck this much."_

"_Oh be quiet Luke." _

Luke is the _king _of claw machines (I had him win Macey and I stuffed ribbon pigs) but can't drive a car to save his life.

"_Come on Luke, I don't think it's possible for you to suck this much."_

"_Shut it."_

"_Really guys, no fighting we're supposed to be having fun!"_

"_While using _my _money."_

On the other hand, Macey has apparently been graced by lady luck herself because she wins dozens of tickets at those luck-based games but is pretty much only average at everything else.

"_How much of your tokens have you used at that game Macey? You've stood there for like five minutes already."_

"_Oh I played it only once so four."_

"…_Then why are tickets still coming out." _

"_I hit the jackpot."_

There were other places that would probably be worth mentioning but the most important part of the trip would have to have been when we stumbled across Bavan.

Okay maybe it wasn't exactly _we _and more like _I _stumbled across Bavan. Like, literally I stumbled right into him when we were making a turn to head into the park.

I was leading the group towards the park and was making the turn past this building just like Owen said I had to when all of a sudden I bumped into someone and fell right on my butt.

"Ow!"

"Hey watch where you're going you brat!"

I looked up and saw an orange haired man wearing a black suit of sorts with gold linings and buttons. At first I was going to tell him off because I was definitely _not _a brat but that was when I noticed that the people walking by had stopped and were looking at me with wide eyes with a bit of fear in them.

That was when I noticed his hat which had this purple gem in the shape of a circle and what seemed looked like wings coming out from both sides of it and didn't that look like…

The symbol of the one group I did not want to meet at all, the Black Wings.

Oh shit.

The Black Wings guy was glaring at me and after a moment it looks like he was going to say something but was then interrupted by his phone ringing. He looked at it with clear distaste before glancing at me and sneering.

"You got lucky this time kid, next time I won't be so nice and let you off for something like that."

After saying that he walked away and I watched as the crowd made way for him. Owen quickly picked me up from the ground and practically carried me back to my house with Luke and Macey at his heels.

While Owen carried me I couldn't help but frown because I didn't think that Bavan (Claudine looked younger so that was probably a younger version of Bavan) was all that bad in the game. I remembered that he ate a lot and didn't really care about anything. I did some quests for him on my battle mage character and he didn't seem too bad besides the fact that he was a part of an evil organization.

This was an interesting development. I guess this world isn't completely the same as the Maple World from the game. But I suppose that's only natural anyways.

When we got home Owen didn't really mention anything about the incident and just said that he was feeling tired and didn't feel like watching over us anymore. He dragged both Luke and Macey with him while leaving saying he that was going to drop off Macey and then head back to his and Luke's house when he finished.

Mom and dad sensed that I was a bit down and had asked me about it but I waved them off saying I was fine. Eventually I got over it though and spent my weekend lazing around the house reading _A_ _Monster Encyclopedia_.

Or at least, that's what I did up until Sunday night.

"Hey Eliza are you all packed up for your trip tomorrow?"

"What are you talking about mom? What trip?"

"Oh dear…"

And that's how I found out that my class had a two-week long trip going around Victoria Island starting on Monday which was tomorrow and that I had absolutely nothing packed.

Suffice to say I didn't get very much sleep that night.

* * *

**Wow, I've been waiting to get to this part.**

**This _technically _doesn't match up with my 'Next Time on PTS' but I decided to change how this chapter would go because it just wasn't working for me. **

**Sorry it took so long. I'll update weekly from now on, most likely on Wednesdays. **

**And if you were wondering yes, this story does have a plot. That plot will **_**finally **_**start in the next chapter. These three chapters were just to get Eliza a bit comfortable with her new body and the Maple World.**

**I'm so excited to write the new chapter you might not even have to wait a week for it.**

**Woot. **

**Oh and if I didn't mention it in this chapter or the earlier chapters, Eliza woke up on a Thursday. This chapter took place when she woke up the next day meaning Friday. **

**This chapter was kind of rushed though so I'm really sorry for that. Also, everything about like Lupins and the Edelstein history was pretty much just made up by me. Stuff like this is going to happen **_**a lot **_**in the story because Maple Story doesn't really give much detail about anything.**

**Anyways, if you're reading this I just want to say thank you! I really appreciate you reading over my work. :) **

**I finished this chapter while listening to the KHR Openings. If you didn't know, KHR stands for Katekyo Hitman Reborn. It's my absolute favorite anime and I definitely recommend that you watch it!**

**Oh! And if you want to check on my chapter progress then look on my profile. I'll try to keep it updated as much as possible.**

**Next on Past The Screen: To Hennesys we shall go. **


	4. Meeting farm boys in potion shops

_Past The Screen_

Chapter Four

* * *

"We will be landing soon so make sure you have your seatbelts on everyone!" I heard Ms. Illia (who was my teacher) say from the front of the plane and yes, you heard right. I said _plane _as in an _airplane. _

Apparently there was an airport in Edelstein which actually made kind of sense. It wasn't exactly reasonable to only have that one guy flying his balloon from Edelstein to Victoria Island. Not to mention that balloon wasn't particularly big either.

I let out a huge yawn and stretched in my seat, causing my seatmate who luckily was Macey to look at me worriedly. A quick glance behind her showed that she was still playing _Go Fish _with some of the other girls from our class.

"You okay Eli?" She asked. The others she was playing with expressed similar concerns to me but I just smiled and waved them off.

"I'm fine Mace." I used the nickname I overheard from our classmates. "I didn't get much sleep last night remember?" Now that caused a couple of giggles and chuckles from the group.

"Still Eli, I can't believe you completely forgot about the trip. You've been looking forward to it this entire month!" A boy exclaimed from behind me.

Rolling my eyes I unbuckled my seat belt and turned around to face the boy. If my memory served correctly his name was Mitchell but almost everyone called him Mitch. I thought that he was kind of funny but I guess it turns out that he's forgetful too.

"Well I have an excuse Mitch, I lost my memory remember?" I frowned, then inwardly grimaced as I saw Mitch's grin instantly vanish.

Ah, that might not have been the smartest thing to say.

Quickly I smiled and tried to tell him that I wasn't upset or anything like that but I Ms. Illia interrupted me. She reprimanded me and told me to hurry up and put my seat belt on.

After she left I couldn't help but stick my tongue out at her causing a few giggles to erupt from around me. In fact, to my delight I saw that Mitch was snickering at me and I stuck my tongue out at him before plopping back down into my seat and putting my seat belt on.

Closing my eyes I tried to get a few minutes of rest before the plane landed. My plans however got ruined when Mitch decided that everyone should sing the Christmas carols we had all apparently sung at the Winter Talent Show the school held a few months ago. To make things worse none of the other passengers seemed against the idea and actually _encouraged _them to sing.

Even now, a couple of hours later the song _Rudolph the Red Nosed Monster_ is still stuck in my head.

* * *

After the plane landed in the Victoria Central Airport and everyone in our class along with the chaperones and Ms. Illia got their luggage we headed outside to where a bus was waiting for us.

It was like your any old school bus with the bright yellow paint and seats-with-no-seat belts. The only thing different was the… _archer girl _that was sitting at the front of the bus.

I say _archer girl _because she had on hunting clothes and had a bow slung over her shoulder along with a quiver full of arrows. She had dark green hair that barely touched her shoulder and piercing silver eyes.

From my seat towards the middle of the bus I listened as Ms. Illia explained to us why the archer girl (who absolutely _couldn't _be older than thirteen) was traveling with our group of elementary school students.

"Although monsters usually do stay away from the roads there have recently been some cases where they've attacked cars and people next to said roads. For our protection we have Miss. Amie here to escort us to Henesys and we're very thankful that she's doing this for us."

There was a chorus of _oohs _and _ahhs _from my classmates but Amie just looked over to Ms. Illia stoically. "I'm only here because I have something in Henesys that I need to get done. _Escorting _you people means that I don't have to pay for a taxi or walk there so you don't need to thank me."

My sort of half-smile turned into a scowl. That's such a bad attitude but unfortunately for me, that statement just upped Amie's '_cool_' factor according to my classmates.

"_Wow I can't believe she said that to Ms. Illia!" _

"_She's so calm! I bet nothing ever scares her!"_

"_I bet she's fought a ton of monsters! She's probably so strong!" _

Quickly Ms. Illia set about to quieting the students, acting as if Amie's comment didn't bother her but I could see her displeasure towards the said archer. Fortunately the bus ride wasn't too long (and not at all eventful either) and soon enough Ms. Illia told us the rooms at the Inn we were staying at.

Not including Ms. Illia there were three other chaperones along with 16 students. There were three rooms which included the boy's room, girl's room, and the chaperones room. In order to save money, everyone bought sleeping bags and we drew lots for who were going to sleep on the beds.

Since the rooms had double beds it was two to a bed for the students and one to a bed for the chaperones (because they're adults and like their personal space.)

Sadly, I didn't win and so I had to set up my sleeping bag on the floor. Luckily, Macey didn't win either (I feel kind of bad for thinking that) and set up her sleeping bag next to mine.

Including me there was nine girls and seven boys in our class so subtracting the four that were sleeping on the beds. I was sharing the lovely floor with three strangers. Well, I guess not technically strangers because I remember that they were playing Go Fish with Macey earlier but still.

Seeing as how it was only about two o'clock in the afternoon Ms. Illia told us all to form four groups of four and pick a chaperone to lead us around Henesys. Macey dragged me over to where Luke and his friend were and the four of us practically jumped Mr. Riole who was the most lax chaperone and the father of Luke's friend Josh. (I didn't see the point of jumping Josh's dad since it was obvious he'd go with whatever group his son was in but Luke just messed up my hair and told me to stop being a party pooper.)

Soon enough Mr. Riole was leading us throughout the streets of Henesys and all I could do was look around in awe.

Or at least, that's all I thought I could do.

* * *

"Hey, Mr. Riole can I go into that store?" I asked said person while pointing to the potion shop. Currently we were in the market and we had all made a chain linking hands going from Mr. Riole to his son then Luke, Macey, and finally me.

So far we've only been doing window shopping because although we all had some money with us to buy souvenirs and such, we didn't want to buy something we only marginally liked now and not have enough money to get something we _really _wanted later. However, I was insanely curious about how potions worked in this world and since I hadn't been able to find that merchant guy who sells potions in Edelstein I figured I'd just buy one from here.

Mr. Riole looked over to me and then to where I had pointed. The potion shop wasn't too far from where the others were looking (_gawking_) at an electronic dog that was jumping through hoops from behind the store window so I was pretty sure he'd let me go.

"Okay, we'll all head there now." He announced to the group with a smile. However, instantly I could hear a _"What?!" _and a "_But we're not done yet!" _

He looked over to me apologetically. "Sorry Eliza but they want to stay here and uh, watch the dog a little longer. We can go there later."

I frowned and tilted my head to the side. "Can't I go by myself?"

Mr. Riole's eyes widened and I could tell that he was a bit surprised that I was willing to go to the shop alone without anyone with me. At first I was a little confused because, _hey dude I'm fourteen I don't need someone to hold my hand while I walk to a store that's like ten feet away _and then I realized _oh wait I'm in a seven-year old body… _

I face-palmed internally at my slip-up but kept my face neutral. I didn't want to look any more out of ordinary than I already was.

However to my surprise Mr. Riole simply smiled and gave me basic rules like _don't talk to strangers _and _pay attention to your surroundings _before sending me towards the potion shop.

I expertly maneuvered my way through the crowd of people and peeked in the door of the shop and I couldn't help but gap at what I saw. There were maybe only half a dozen people in the medium-sized shop but they were all wearing armor and carrying their weapons with them and… _Wow_ that pole arm looks really heavy just how strong is that dude?

I was perfectly content to just stand by the door and watch them all but the shop manager spotted me and beckoned me into the store with a '_Come on in, don't be scared!'_ causing all the shoppers to glance towards me and wait for me to actually come into the store before resuming their browsing. Some of them even offered a smile and a wave, probably trying to reassure me that they meant no harm and etc. Although some were more effective than others (the pretty girl with a staff standing next to the cashier counter) while some didn't reassure me in the least bit (the guy with the pole arm looked kind of scary when he smiled.)

Looking through the shelves I found both potions that I recognized and potions that weren't familiar to me at all. Also, I saw that they were available in many different sizes.

Using my mini-notebook and pencil that I had kept in my pocket I listed the names of some of the potions I saw along with their prices, sizes, and a small description.

_Red potion: Mini -100 mesos, Small -200 mesos. Heals small cuts and relieves small amounts of physical exhaustion._

_Orange potion: Small -250 mesos, Medium -300 mesos. It's slightly better than red potion._

_White potion: Small -400 mesos, Medium -500 mesos, Large -600 mesos. Better than the orange potion, also helps to heal muscle sprains and broken bones two times faster. _

_Blue potion: Small -200 mesos, Medium -300 mesos. It relieves a small amount of mental exhaustion._

_Mana elixir: Medium -400 mesos, Large -500 mesos. Better than blue potion and increases concentration. _

_Numbing potion: Small -400 mesos. It numbs most, if not all the pain. Works for small to medium-sized wounds and not too severe broken bones and sprains. _

_Blood stop potion: Small -500 mesos. It stops most, if not all the blood coming from wounds. Works for small to medium-sized wounds and less effective for internal bleeding._

The mini-sized potions were only about as big as a pill bottle. Small-sized potions on the other hand were slightly bigger than that and so on for the other sizes.

After asking the shop manager about the potions I also found out that when drinking the potions you were naturally able to tell when you need to stop drinking it and didn't have to drink the entire bottle in one go.

While looking back at my notes I couldn't help but frown. Potions were kind of expensive and I only had three thousand mesos with me which equaled to about thirty dollars back at Earth. I debated whether I should buy any but my thoughts got interrupted by a slightly high-pitched voice coming from the front of the store.

"Ms. Fally I'm here to pick up my brother's order!"

I turned around to see a boy maybe only a year or so older than me enter the store and head towards the shop manager I had talked to earlier. He had slightly messy brown hair and light blue eyes and was wearing a plain brown shirt, jeans, and plain brown sandals. Also, he looked kind of familiar…

"Ah, so your brother sent you to pick up the red potions then huh?" Ms. Fally says while heading towards the storage room in the back of the store.

The boy follows after her but waits at the sales counter and waves at the cashier girl in greeting. "So how's business been Ms. Revi?"

The cashier girl chuckles a bit. "It's been fine Evan. In fact, a few days ago…."

At that point I just blanked out, not comprehending anything because my mind had focused on the boy just a few feet away from me who was all smiles and looked like he didn't have any worries at all.

That was Freud's successor who would form a spirit pact with an Onyx Dragon named Mir. Who would become one of the five heroes (six if you included EunWol but I didn't know much about him since he never came out yet.) He would become an amazing and powerful dragon master who would one day fight against the Black Mage along with the other heroes.

I tilted my head to the side and frowned as I observed him. He didn't even look strong enough to fight a ribbon pig.

"Is it just you Evan? Your brother ordered a lot."

I was brought back to reality by the voice of the shopkeeper as she walked out of the storage room carrying two wooden crates and by the looks of it, they were _heavy _wooden crates. She set them up on the counter and repeated the purchase to Evan to be sure that she got it right.

"It was a dozen small red potions and two dozen mini-red potions right?"

Evan nodded and took out the pay before lifting up one of the crates. "Wow, this is kind of heavy."

Both Ms. Fally and Ms. Revi looked a bit worried at that and I couldn't help but worry too. Wasn't Evan's home around the outskirts of Henesys? How was he going to get both crates home if he could barely carry one of them?

Both the shop manager and the cashier exchanged a look before Ms. Revi offered to carry one of the crates to Evan's house claiming that Ms. Fally would be able to handle the shop herself for a bit. However that caused Evan to frown and shake his head repeatedly.

"I can't ask you to do that. The shop looks pretty busy anyways so you both need to stay here to keep it under control." He said while trying to adjust the grip he had on the crate. "I'll just make two trips. I don't mind."

"But…" Ms. Revi trailed off, thinking about what Evan had just said. After looking around I noticed that the shop did seem a bit more crowded than when I first walked in.

Sighing, I approached the three of them with a small smile.

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help but overhear that you seemed to have a problem…?" I trailed off at the end because _wait a second that doesn't sound like something a seven-year old would say! _

They all looked at me with slight confusion before Ms. Fally blinked in what seemed recognition.

"Ah, I remember helping you out earlier Miss…?"

Beaming at her I gave her and the rest of them my name. "I'm Eliza Hertsh."

Ms. Fally and Ms. Revi both nodded and smiled before giving their names too. Evan however wouldn't meet my eyes and kept fidgeting.

I frowned. Did I look weird or something? I checked my attire which consisted of a green t-shirt (I had managed to convince mom to take me shopping over the weekend) along with a black jacket, jeans, and black shoes. I couldn't find any stains or holes in anything and my clothes seemed perfectly reasonable. I had brushed my hair before leaving the Inn and I even put it in a pony tail too. What was up with him?

Looking at Ms. Fally I saw her give a knowing smile to Ms. Revi before introducing Evan to me.

"That's Evan, don't mind him too much. He's just a bit shy." She said while messing up his hair a bit.

Evan groaned and I could see him flush a bit. Aw, he was so cute.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. First things first Eli, gotta help Evan because after all rule #1 when wanting to be a good person: Help others when they're in need of help.

"We'll it's nice to meet you all but I was wondering if maybe I could help with your problem." I smiled and without receiving an answer I lifted up the other crate that was sitting on the counter. I grunted a bit at the weight but I found that I could carry it around just fine.

Evan turned his attention to me and I could tell that he confused. "You wanna help me carry the potions home?"

"Yeah, it all works out this way right?" I said in reply to his question, already heading to the door before turning around sheepishly. "Uhm, where exactly is your house anyways?"

He blinked a few times before realization hit and he hurried to catch up to me after yelling goodbyes to Ms. Fally and Ms. Revi.

"Thanks for the help and don't worry it's not too far from here uh, Eliza." He said as he led me through the crowds of the market.

I rolled my eyes even though he couldn't see me since he was in front of me. "Just call me Eli and I'll just call you Evan since I can't find a way to shorten your name."

"Ah, okay Eli. But I think you can shorten my name a bit more. My brother sometimes calls me _Eva _when he makes fun of me." At this point we were around the edge of the town nearing the gates.

I hummed a bit before letting out a small giggle. "You want me to call you Eva then?"

He slowed his stride and then turned his head to face me with a frown on his face. "No, of course not, I was just saying you know…"

Quickly I caught up to him so that we were side by side.

"Yeah I know, but Eva's a nice name."

"You know you don't really act your age."

"Hmph, you don't even know my age."

"Well I'm eight and I'm assuming that you're seven right?"

"Maybe…"

"...This is going to be a long walk."

* * *

**And the budding friendship between Eli and Evan begins! **

**Yeah, this chapter is kind of late but it's long (compared to my other chapters) so I hope that will make up for it.**

**I think I'll just stop promising to have a chapter up on or by a certain day. Let's just say that I'll update sometime in the next week. Don't know exactly when but it'll be around there.**

**I swear I don't even know how it got this long. Technically some other stuff was supposed to happen in this chapter but I decided to save that for the next chapter.**

**Next time on Past The Screen: To the pig farm.**


	5. Archer worship

_Past The Screen_

Chapter Five

* * *

One minute we were just walking through the grass with Evan leading the way to his house, the next we were crouched behind some bushes with both our breathing being heavy and eyes wide with slight panic.

Just awhile ago for reasons I do not know, a herd of untamed ribbon pigs had charged towards me and Evan while we were just walking and minding our own business. As soon as Evan had noticed them charging at us he quickly dragged me off the pathway and into a nearby group of bushes while saying that it'd be best if we just wait for them to pass. Unfortunately, it seemed like the pigs decided to make a pit stop right in the middle of the pathway basically blocking entry for Evan and I.

I turned to look at Evan suspiciously. "Didn't you say earlier that you live on a pig farm?" I received a nod in response to that and sighed feeling slightly exasperated. "If you're from a pig farm then shouldn't you know how to handle pigs?"

He flushed a bit at that before weakly defending himself. "I know how to handle the pigs we have on the farm. These are different. Dangerous." The last part was added as an afterthought after he did a quick peek over the bushes to see if the pigs had gone away. From his put-down expression I'll just assume that they haven't left yet.

"Well we can't stay here forever, it's going to get dark soon and I still need to make it back after I help you deliver these." I lightly patted the box that was resting on my lap, making sure not to make too much noise to alert the pigs of our presence.

Really, I can't believe I'm scared of ribbon pigs. At first I tried to justify my actions by thinking that _oh they're in a large group so it's only natural that I'm a bit scared. _But then I had tried to peek over the bush myself and almost screamed when I saw how close one of them were.

They were _so _not cute. The stuffed ribbon pigs that Luke got Macey and I from that arcade were extremely misleading when comparing it to how ribbon pigs actually looked.

Thinking back on it I think that I actually jinxed myself by saying that Evan didn't look strong enough to fight a ribbon pig. Or does it not count as jinxing since it was actually true? Perhaps this is just plain irony then.

Curse you irony. I hate you.

A slight nudge on my shoulder brought me back from my thoughts and I looked up to see Evan looking at me worriedly.

"You okay? You wouldn't answer me when I called you." He whispered to me. I couldn't help but smile because hey, it feels nice knowing that someone cares about you.

Nodding I lifted myself up slightly to get another peek over the bush. Maybe if the pigs weren't so close then Evan and I could just sneak our way past them-

I screamed.

"Oh my freaking gosh." I whispered to myself as I slowly backed away from the bush that had previously been the barrier between me, and mean looking pork with sharp teeth.

When I peeked over the pig was literally _right up in my face_ and so I believe I was completely justified in screaming. After screaming I quickly grabbed the potion crate and jumped away from the pig. From the corner of my eye I could see Evan doing the same albeit more quietly.

"Shoot, it's seen us now." That was Evan, but I didn't bother looking at him because that would mean averting my gaze from the ribbon pigs that might just be the cause of my death.

My thoughts were running a mile a minute with them ranging from _oh my gosh this is karma isn't it? _to _I didn't even get to go to Ludibrium yet! I want to see a city full of toys!_

I didn't even notice the figure that stood maybe a dozen or so feet down the pathway from where me and Evan was standing. However, I did notice the sound of something flying through the air before seeing the pig in front of me keel over with an arrow protruding from its neck.

Oh, _yuck _it was twitching. I feel kind of bad for it actually.

Turning my head I noticed Evan do the same and saw someone who was actually quite familiar.

Standing there with an arrow set and ready to be launched using her trusty bow was _Amie _the 'cool' archer girl who had provided protection on the trip from the Victoria Island Central Airport to Henesys.

My eyes widened and I almost called out to her, wanting to ask why she was here when I saw her eyes narrow in concentration before her arrow glowed green and was launched with a sort of green energy surrounding it. I couldn't help but follow the arrow with my eyes and although I was a bit late, I saw the arrow hit the largest pig of the group and going straight through it.

In a mass of squeals and oinks the pigs scattered and soon enough it was just me, Evan, Amie, and two dead pigs.

"Whoa." I turned to see Evan looking at Amie with awe and amazement. I frowned in confusion. She wasn't that amazing in my opinion. That just looked like a first job skill for archers.

I was going to ask Evan what his thoughts were when Amie interrupted me.

"Are you two okay?" She said as she glanced over at us before heading towards the pigs.

Nodding I walked over to Evan and nudged him in the side with my elbow. I heard an indignant _ow _and then was greeted by a hushed _what did you do that for?_

I gestured to where Amie was untying the ribbons from the pigs.

"Do you like, worship her now or something?"

His eyes widened and his face flushed before he slapped me on the arm. "What, no! Why would you think that?"

I placed my hands in front of me, palms facing outwards as I tried to calm him down. "Well from the look of your face earlier it seemed like you just saw a goddess." I took a quick glance at the subject of our conversation before continuing, "Then again, I suppose she's pretty enough."

Evan shook his head vehemently and I took slight amusement in the fact that his face was as ripe as a tomato.

"It's not like that! I just- I mean, don't you think that was really cool?" He started excitedly. "She was able to shoot it from _so _far and she was even able to kill it in one-hit!"

I blinked, slightly confused but Evan took my silence as permission to continue.

"I've always thought that archers were kind of cool because I'd see them around town a lot but I've never seen one in action before. How could she stay so calm and even concentrate in a situation like this? I was practically shaking in fear!" He exclaimed. I couldn't help the small smile that appeared on my face as I realized his eyes were practically shinning. At this point Amie had already started to approach us and from the way her face was heating up I could tell she'd heard at least some, if not all of what Evan had just said.

Grinning, I latched on to Evan's arm causing Evan to look at me weirdly. "Not that I'm against you laying on the praise for our dear savior but I think if you keep it up she might just explode from embarrassment."

His eyes widened and I got a close up view of him gawking in surprise as he noticed that _yes, the archer girl was in total hearing range _and _yes, she heard me fanboying about her earlier. _

Well, at least that's what I thought he noticed. It was probably somewhere along those lines.

There was a sort-of awkward silence that lasted for about a minute before I decided to act my (physical) age and play the role of a curious, innocent, and slightly scared seven-year old girl.

"Thank you _so_ much for saving me and Evan! I was _so_ scared I thought I was going to die." I exclaimed with wide eyes and a frightened expression. My grip on Evan tightened and I think my face was turning red because of my effort to not laugh at both Evan and Amie's expression. They stared at my clear mood whiplash and it took every ounce of me to school my features so that they remained slightly scared and panicked.

Removing my grip on Evan I linked my fingers together and lifted them to chest level. "You're Amie right? The one who rode on the bus with my class to protect us? I knew as soon as I first saw you that you were awesome."

The archer blinked at that before scratching the back of her neck rather awkwardly.

"Uh, yeah that's me and thanks I guess. But really, I'm not that awesome."

Inwardly I smirked. So it seems like that cool-attitude was just a façade, a good one too.

Outwardly though I beamed at her and I guess she could tell that I was going to launch into another round of praise because she quickly held up a hand to stop me. "Sorry but I need to go… do something. It was nice meeting the both of you but be more careful next time!" And with that she hurriedly walked in the direction of Henesys.

Now that I think about it, isn't that the direction she came from?

…Maybe I scared her a bit too much.

Biting the inside of my cheek I walked over to the bush that hid the crates that Evan and I had abandoned when Amie showed up. Following my lead, Evan also walked over to grab his crate. However I did a double-take when I noticed that Evan was scowling. Or at least, I think he was.

Picking up my crate I waited for Evan to do the same before nudging him slightly.

Oh, he just narrowed his eyes at me. He was _definitely _scowling.

"What's wrong Evan?" I asked.

He puffed out his cheeks before taking in a deep breath and sighing. Looking over at me a bit dejectedly he said, "You scared the cool archer girl away with your mood change."

I blinked before launching into a fit of giggles. "Her name is Amie and you really think so?"

"I know so."

Smiling, I hummed. "Did you want to praise her more or something?"

Evan shook his head before bumping into me and igniting a squeak from me as I tried to balance myself so that the crate wouldn't fall. I gave him the evil eye but he just laughed.

"Actually, I wanted to ask her some questions about being an archer." My steps slowed to a stop and I could feel my stomach churn. _This does not sound right. _

Evan however didn't notice this and kept going. "When Utah gets older he'll be the one who inherits the farm and so I was wondering what I should do with my life-" He glanced over his shoulder and frowned when he saw that I had stopped a few feet behind him

"What's wrong?" He asked and I could tell from his tone that his concern for me was sincere. "I'm not actually upset that you scared her away so you don't need to feel guilty."

I shook my head and gave a shaky smile as I slowly walked to catch up to him, my mind spinning with the amount of thoughts that were passing through it.

Why would Evan want to become an archer? He's supposed to be a dragon master, a mage. Although it's not like he knows about that just yet.

Finally I stepped in place with him and my smile turned sincere as I nudged him as a sign to keep leading the way.

This was probably just a passing thought but just to be safe…

"Well I suppose being an archer would be cool but don't you think being a mage would be even better?" I beamed at him.

He spared a curious glance at me before returning his sight on the path ahead of us. "I suppose so. But mages need to be really smart right? They need to be able to cast all of those spells and… well I'm not exactly the brightest in the bunch."

What.

I looked at him incredulously. "So what if you're not that smart-" I saw him grimace a bit, I guess he didn't like it when people degrade his intelligence. "It doesn't mean you can't be a mage. You can do anything if you try hard enough." And so I ended my short pep talk with a cliché but encouraging line at the end, absolute perfection. Someone should quote me on this.

However looking at his expression I saw he wasn't really convinced but that's all right. At least I've given him something to think about.

Anyways, it's time for a change in tactics-

"Oh look we're here." My thoughts were interrupted by Evan's cheery voice. I blinked and realized that we were already in front of his house. Leaning back slightly I also realized that I was only a few inches away from walking into the fence that surrounded the house.

Glaring at Evan I huffed at him while he set down his crate to get the key to open the gate. In just a minute tops we both stood by the door and since our arms were occupied with the crates Evan did the honor of kicking the door and calling for someone to open it.

"Hey I'm back! Our arms are full so can someone open the door?" He yelled, and after a few seconds I was tempted to yell too but the sound of footsteps approaching stopped me.

Soon enough the door opened revealing a woman with green eyes and light brown hair pulled into a ponytail. _Evan's mom _was the information my brain provided me with. I couldn't seem to recall her name though.

She noticed Evan first and telling from her facial expressions it looked like she was going to scold him, probably for taking so long when she noticed me standing by him. At first she just sort of stared at me causing me to fidget a little.

"Um, hi ma'am? I'm Eliza but-" I was interrupted by a squeal and I felt the crate being lifted from my arms. I watched as Evan's mom quickly placed the crate on what I assumed to be the kitchen table before walking back to me and Evan with a bright smile.

Shaking my arms slightly to get rid of the stiffness I glanced over at Evan who wore a resigned expression. I opened my mouth to ask him why he looked like that when I felt hands on my cheeks and my personal space being invaded.

"You are so cute! Just call me Auntie Anna okay sweetie?" Anna (Aunt Anna is too much of a mouthful) said as she pinched my cheeks. I tried to respond to that but what was supposed to be an _okay _turned into a jumbled mixture of sounds only remotely sounding like it.

It was at this time that Evan groaned. "Mom you're scaring her." Anna responded in kind by whacking him on the back of his head. Silently I thanked Evan for his sacrifice as I rubbed my sore cheeks. Why did adults like doing that? I just don't understand their logic.

Meanwhile I saw who seemed to be Evan's dad peek out from the kitchen with wide eyes. "Oh dear goddess, Evan's brought home a girl!"

Instantly I could feel my face warm and I couldn't help my squeak of _it's not like that at all!_

This caused Anna to look over to me curiously. "It's not?" Oh god she had thought of it that way too.

Shaking my head I spoke in a firm and clear voice, "Evan's my friend and I just wanted to help him carry the potions since it was too many for him to carry alone." A glance to the side revealed Evan nodding quickly and I couldn't help but smile at the slight flush on his face.

Ah, this is why Evan was one of my favorite Maple Story characters. He's just so cute.

"Aw, well that's too bad. But we'll still be seeing you around here more often right sweetie?" Anna sighed before smiling at me.

I gave an apologetic smile before latching onto Evan's arm, realizing that Evan's dad had taken the crate while I was talking to Anna. "Sorry but I actually just became his friend today and I'm just a tourist who's leaving… tomorrow." I had to pause for a second while I tried to remember our schedule. If my memory serves me correctly, (which it usually does) my class and I would be leaving to go to Ellinia in the afternoon tomorrow just a bit after lunch.

Evan's head swerved to look at me confusedly. Whoops, guess I forgot to tell him that.

"You're leaving tomorrow?"

Looking up at the ceiling I scratched my cheek. "Yeah… sorry, I forgot to tell you-"

Ow.

He hit me.

On the arm if you wanted me to be specific. But it actually didn't really hurt that much. I could tell he didn't put that much force into it. His expression however hurt _a lot. _

He didn't just look sad, he looked mad, upset, and maybe even a little devastated. I understood that of course, I even sympathized with it. I mean, if I made a friend and found out not too long after that said friend was going to leave the next day meaning and I wouldn't be able to see or talk to them anymore I'd be rather sad too.

And from what I'd noticed so far it seemed that Evan didn't really have any friends. I'm pretty sure he was being home schooled and while we were walking through Henesys he didn't wave or say hi to any of the kids that walked pass us. Only a passing glance was spared before he continued talking to me about the farm and other random stuff. Remembering that caused my heart to clench and a frown to make its way on to my face.

Evan's a loner, my dear precious favorite Maple Story character was a _loner _and I was going to contribute to his loneliness.

My frown turned into a scowl and from the corner of my eye I noticed Evan and his family's worried expressions but I was too deep into my thoughts to actually acknowledge it.

Maybe I wouldn't have to go without contact with him. Phones might not be commonly used in this world (or computers and I swear I felt like _dying_ when I found that out) but I was sure that mail still existed. How else would people be able to communicate anyways?

Although I wouldn't be able to do anything about the 'not seeing each other' part, (at least for now, I was going to do a heck of a lot of traveling when I get older _-cough-_ Ludibrium _-cough-_) I could definitely do something about the 'not talking to each other' part.

"But don't worry a bit Evan. We can still keep in touch!" I beamed at him brightly and it was a testament to how used to my personality Evan was even though I met him maybe around an hour ago that he wasn't really disturbed by my quick change in mood. His _family _however…

"Did you see that dear?" Anna said to her husband in what I assumed was supposed to be a hushed whisper. "She was scowling just a second ago and now she's smiling so bright! Do you think she's bipolar?"

Hey that's kind of rude. You're saying that like there's something wrong with bipolar people. Riley is bipolar and she's one of my most interesting friends… but it's better to not think of _that_ world now Eli. The present is what's important not the past after all.

"Mom we can both _hear _you." Evan drawled from my right side. I blinked at how close he was before he linked our arms together and leaned on to me. Ack, he was kind of heavy. "Now what were you saying about us being able to keep in touch?"

I grinned and proceeded to explain my idea. "Well you see it's simple actually. We can write letters to each other! I'll give you my address and you'll give me yours so we can write to each other whenever we want. Sure it'll take a few days for the other to reach it but hey, it's better than nothing right?"

Evan contemplated the idea in his head for a bit before smiling. "Yeah that'll work, but just to warn you my handwriting is kind of bad."

I snorted. "If you think yours is bad then I can't wait until you see mine. I don't know where or how the whole 'girls write really pretty' thing started but that definitely does not apply to me."

He gave a small smirk before removing his arm from mine and walking to stand in front of me with flair, both hands on his hips. "Well doesn't that just mean you aren't really a girl?"

My eyebrows rose and my eyes widened before I let out a squawk of indignation. "Excuse me! I am a _girl _and I have the body parts to prove it mister-"

Sadly Anna interrupted me before I could continue my rant by taking my arm and dragging me into the kitchen with an amused _why don't you help me make dinner in the kitchen sweetie._

Quickly I escaped from her grasp as soon as we entered the kitchen and I grabbed the first pen and paper I saw and started to scribble on my address along with my half-baked signature on the bottom of it.

Anna looked over my shoulder and I twitched when she said, "Your handwriting is quite messy sweetie."

Replying with a simple _I know _I stalked out of the kitchen and ripped the paper in half (I wrote my address on the top half) and seeing as how Evan wasn't paying attention I decided to shove both halves of the paper into Evan's face.

"Eh?" He blinked at the two papers before taking both of them and holding it in slight confusion.

Rolling my eyes I told him, "The one with the writing on it is my address." Then I proceeded to slam the pen into his hand, crumpling the paper a bit. "Now I want you to write your address on the blank one."

He nodded dumbly before snapping out of his daze. "Hey, can't you be a bit nicer Eli?" He complained as he wrote down his address, using the nearby wall to write on the paper.

Running my fingers through my ponytail I looked at him pointedly. "I am being nice! It's not like I shoved the pen into your face."

Evan laughed a bit and gave me back the now written on paper after sticking the pen into his pocket. "But you did shove the paper in my face."

Humming a bit I did a little twirl. "I couldn't help it since you were kind of spaced out."

We both chuckled at that and I watched as Evan opened his mouth to say something when I noticed the time on the clock that was placed on the far end of the room.

It was _four thirty-five._

All the groups were supposed to meet back at the hotel by four thirty.

I was going to be so dead when I got back.

Running up to Evan I gave him a quick hug before dashing away while waving my crumpled piece of paper in the air. "Sorry Evan but I was supposed to meet up with the rest of my classmates at the hotel five minutes ago! I'll definitely come by tomorrow before I leave!"

"Huh- wait!" Evan yelled as he tried to run after me.

Unfortunately for him I was a fast runner and his mom had a hand on his shoulder to hold him back. I jokingly blew him a kiss after saying another goodbye before sprinting towards Henesys.

* * *

As soon as I arrived at the hotel I was bombarded with both people and questions.

My classmates along with the chaperones had somehow lost the concept of _personal space_ and wouldn't stop getting in my face and asking me questions.

_Where were you?_

_Were you kidnapped?_

_Why weren't you with your group?_

I was about ready to snap at them but I was interrupted by Ms. Illia. Actually, _everyone _was interrupted by Ms. Illia.

She had done that clapping rhythm thing with her hands and like the brainwashed children we were we all immediately clapped to match it.

At that point she had received everyone's attention and then they even made a path for her leading straight to me. I'm not going to go into the detail about the lecture she gave me, (it was long and filled with a lot of hand gestures and a bunch of statements that I assumed were to make me try and feel guilty like _do you have any idea how worried we were?_) but after that she sent all of us to our rooms where our dinner would be delivered to us.

It was a rather boring night overall and I was so happy when I woke up the next day, incredibly anxious and excited to go to Evan's house.

But then Ms. Illia decided to assign a chaperone to watch over me _especially_ while we went through a specific agenda today. Apparently we were supposed to go to some places in a certain order and at the end we'd end up at the edge of town where a bus would be waiting to take us to Ellinia. The chaperone was supposed to make sure that I stayed with the group and didn't venture off by myself.

Thankfully though, Ms. Illia didn't take into account my cleverness and creativity and so I escaped my 'watcher' the first chance I got.

That first chance happened to be when I went to use the bathroom. If you can't tell where I'm going with this I basically just climbed out of the bathroom window. I knew movies had at least _some _amount of realism to them.

After running around a bit after the edge of Hennesys I was able to find Evan's house. Quietly I opened the gate and walked up to the door. While doing this however a thought occurred to me.

I remembered something I was going to say to Evan yesterday before being interrupted by none other than Evan himself.

Twisting the doorknob I couldn't help but grin as I realized that it was unlocked. (That's actually really bad but I was just happy that I might be able to surprise Evan.) I slammed the door open and happily saw Evan with wide eyes sitting on the couch eating cereal.

Although I might not be able to do anything about Evan liking archers instead of mages I can do something about something else.

"Hey Evan don't you think dragons are really cool?"

* * *

**Omg I'm done. **

**I'm so happy.**

**This isn't even how I planned it would end in my outline. But it was getting long, and this just seemed like a good way to end it. **

**Anyways! I'm sorry this chapter is a bit late. It's been over a week already. **

**I hope the length of this makes up for it though. Argh, it's long though. The longest chapter I've written so far. I don't want to edit it because that means reading it from the beginning…**

**Also, if you didn't notice I added in chapter titles along with a new summary! I feel like the new one describes more of the overall feel of the story. **

**Next Time on Past The Screen: Goodbyes and Magic**

**[Stats] (because I think this would be cool)**

**Started Writing: 4/17/14 (I'm sorry guys, it took me five days before starting on it)**

**Finished Writing: 4/24/14 (yay)**


	6. Short attention spans

_Past The Screen_

Chapter Six

* * *

I _probably _shouldn't have barged into Evan's house. I should have knocked on the door and waited for him to open it like a normal person would.

But then again, everyone's always telling me to be different and unique so _technically _I can attribute the blame for Evan nearly choking to death via his cereal on everyone else.

I'm joking, I know it was my fault I'm just trying to be funny okay.

But seriously, I can't believe how much of a wimp Evan is. Is it really such a surprise for me to barge into his house in the morning when I _clearly _told him yesterday that I'd be coming by the next day?

I sighed then continued to hit Evan's back repeatedly to try to ease his coughs. Thankfully though, after about maybe half a minute or so the coughs started to let up and Evan could manage _mostly _coherent sentences.

"How did you even get in here Eli?" He said in between coughs. I smiled sheepishly at him and pouted a bit after he glared at me.

"I'm hurt Evan, did you think that I picked the lock or something?" I asked him with my right hand on my heart acting rather dramatic about it.

He gave me a sour look but I could see the smile creeping up on his face. "Well I definitely wouldn't put it past you to."

Rolling my eyes I playfully shoved his arm. "Hmph, actually the door was unlocked. You guys should be more careful about that. I'm pretty sure you don't want weird people just coming into your house because of an unlocked door."

"It's obviously too late for that."

I clicked my tongue at him. "Excuse me, I'm not weird." Evan snorted at this and I kicked him in return. "I'm just _unique_."

He grinned at me and with a quick _I'll be right back_ he headed into the kitchen to wash his bowl and spoon.

After a bit of contemplation I sat on the side of the couch, next to where he had sat and stared at the ceiling wondering why it was so easy to talk to Evan.

With Macey, Luke, and all the others I remember being rather reserved most of the time. I'd jump from happy and excited for one moment and then to calm and nonchalant the next. Tilting my head slightly I smiled slightly. I suppose it's because Evan doesn't know _Eliza_, he knows _Elissa_.

Right now they're basically one and the same, or at least they're supposed to be. Elissa's soul is in Eliza's body with Eliza's soul being nowhere in sight.

According to my parents Eliza pre-amnesia was rather quiet and shy. I was surprised when I heard that but they quickly followed by also telling me that were actually happy that I was more outgoing now than before. However that posed a problem. Not acting like Eliza even if I had amnesia would seem suspicious. I don't think people with amnesia completely lose their personality and adopt a different one.

After hearing that I tried to be quieter, key word _tried_. Apparently I also failed horribly and my parents realized this and told me I didn't have to force myself to. They told me that I'd always be their daughter no matter how I acted and that they would always love me despite me not remembering them.

You have no idea how much it hurt to hear them say that because I _wasn't_ their daughter. They shouldn't love me because I was a complete and absolute stranger and I really couldn't have been happier to have taken drama as an elective last year because I'm sure it would've been strange for me to cry after hearing that.

But then again I suppose I could have passed it off as tears of happiness.

However, going back on the fact that I had no idea where Eliza's real soul went an idea popped up in my head that maybe she was stuck in my body back on Earth.

A seven-year old stuck in a fourteen-year old body? Now that would definitely be interesting. I hummed to myself.

Would that be more interesting than a fourteen-year old stuck in a seven-year old body? I laughed, quietly though so that Evan wouldn't think I was weird… or at least not anymore weird than he already thought I was.

Hmm, now that I thought about it wasn't Evan taking a bit too long? It shouldn't take more than ten minutes just to wash his dishes and then come back.

Standing up from the couch I walked towards the kitchen, ignoring the uncomfortable churning of my stomach that signaled my anxiety and worry. I looked inside and frowned when I saw that he wasn't there. On a possibly unrelated note the door that led to outside from the kitchen was open.

Oh who was I kidding that was definitely a completely related note. I can't believe I'm asking this but…

Did Evan just ditch me?

I blinked twice before shaking my head and walking towards the door. There was no way he'd ditch me. We were friends after all.

But… if he didn't ditch me then just where was he?

I sped up my pace as a rather disturbing scenario swirled around my head.

Kidnapped? By the Black Wings possibly?

I mentally smacked myself. No, there was no way that was possible. The Black Wings couldn't know that Evan was Freud's successor. Based on how old he looked from the game (to me he seemed maybe thirteen at the youngest) I still had about five years until he stumbled upon Mir. But then again, this world doesn't seem to be a carbon copy of the game if Evan's apparent archer worship was anything to go by.

Sighing, I stepped outside and looked around and spotted Evan's mom tending to some flowers. I couldn't help but smile as I admired her small garden.

As if she could sense my gaze Anna turned around and her face lit up almost instantly.

"Eliza! When did you get here sweetie?" She beamed at me. She got up and looked like she wanted to give me a hug but then she realized how dirty her hands were from tending to her plants.

Stepping outside more and closing the door behind me I asked her about Evan's whereabouts.

Anna tilted her head in thought, "Evan? I saw Utah drag him out of the kitchen towards the pig stables just awhile ago."

My eyes widened. Utah! He was Evan's older brother wasn't he? Why didn't I see him when I was here last night anyways?

As I opened my mouth to ask just where Utah was yesterday I immediately snapped it shut as Anna continued talking. "Oh don't worry about Evan sweetie, Utah is Evan's older brother. He's really nice you see. I believe he said that he just wanted to have a nice chat with Evan. Brother bonding you see."

I smiled hesitantly as I realized my practically fatal screw up. That's right. I wasn't supposed to know who Utah was. Anna probably thought that my surprise meant that I had thought Evan was in trouble or something like that.

Politely excusing myself I headed in the general direction of where Anna pointed the pig stables were and promised to myself to be more careful about what I say.

It was a rather short walk and soon enough I could hear Utah and Evan talking about… me?

"…leaving in the afternoon?" Hmm, I think that's Utah speaking. It sounded too deep to be Evan's voice that's for sure.

"Yeah, she's not from around here and said that she's basically going around the island."

I crept closer to them and thanked the goddess Rhine (see I'm getting good at adapting to this world) that they had their backs facing me.

From where I was walking I saw Evan's shoulders slump and Utah awkwardly pat him on the shoulder.

"She said you could write to each other so things should still be-"

_CRACK._

Why do you forsake me Rhine? I thought for a second there that you actually liked me.

If you couldn't tell what just happened I had stepped on a branch, alerting the two boys' of my presence.

I awkwardly waved at a wide-eyed Evan and a curious Utah. "Hey Evan, since you didn't come back I came looking for you."

Evan walked over to me immediately sprouting apologies but I ignored them in favor of watching Utah.

While Evan looked like Anna, Utah took after both her and the dad, Gustav. He had the black hair from Gustav and the green eyes from Anna.

Actually he was kind of cute-

Wait no, not going there Eli. He's too old for you, especially in _this _body. Besides he already had that other girl… Camilia? It was something like that.

Snapping out of my thoughts I turned to Evan who was still saying sorry albeit in different ways. Although it was rather amusing I was getting a bit tired of it.

"Don't worry about it Evan. You're fine so it's all good." I pat his head a few times, mentally wondering just how his hair could be so soft. They didn't have fancy conditioner here did they?

Evan smiled at me but the smile soon turned into a frown. "Hey, when are you leaving Eli?"

I blinked. Then I looked to the nonexistent watch on my wrist then cursed.

Smiling sheepishly I rubbed the back of my neck. "Err, sometime after lunch I think?"

That's when Utah decided to step into the conversation. "Ah yeah, that's right you're a tourist here aren't you Eli? You came with your classmates to go around the island?"

Leaning on one of the pig stables to get a good look at the pig I offered him a thumbs up since I was absorbed in watching the pig. This pig was incredibly quiet and didn't even squeal or oink at me. It was vastly different from the ones me and Evan had met yesterday.

Faintly I heard a sigh but dismissed it. I wonder how they trained them-

I fell back suddenly causing me to land on my butt due to someone pulling on my arm roughly. Looking at the perpetrator I saw an exasperated looking Evan.

"You have a short attention span you know." He said to me while extending his hand.

Feeling quite grateful I took it and pulled myself up, not minding the little voice in my head that said _bring him down with you_. Taking a deep breath I opened my mouth to ask if they had the time on them when Utah interrupted me.

"Are you by any chance from the Edelstein elementary school?"

My head whipped around to stare at him. "Yeah, but how did you know that?"

Utah chuckled and shoved his hands into his pockets. "It's a small world isn't it Evan?"

"Yeah I guess so. It looks like we were going to meet each other anyways." Evan stretched before walking back towards the house.

Going after him I tugged on his arm. "Wait what's going on? What am I missing here?"

He ignored me and Utah took his place on the other side of me but still avoiding my outstretched leg that tried to trip him.

"Don't be mad Eli, you'll find out soon." Utah said as we neared the house.

I frowned however as I realized it was rather noisy. I could hear a mix of a bunch of people talking which didn't make any sense since the only people who lived here were Evan and his family.

But, as soon as we turned the corner to come into the view of the front of the house it all became clear. My class and the chaperones were all there apparently being talked to by Anna and Gustav.

At our arrival we were met by cheers and yells from my classmates.

"There she is! I found her Ms. Illia!"

"I can't believe you climbed through the bathroom window!"

"You're going to be in _so _much trouble!"

However I tuned all that out because all of a sudden I was being crushed in a tight bear hug.

Mimicking choking sounds I was released from the hold and I was brought face to face with a teary-eyed Macey.

"I'm so mad at you! How could you just leave? And through the bathroom window too!" She nearly shouted at me. I grimaced and took a step back, not really liking how my personal space bubble was being invaded.

Unfortunately I ended up bumping into a certain someone else too.

"Now now Eli there's no trying to escape us. We were really worried. You could have gotten lost or something you know." Luke grinned at me, but I could see the relief in his eyes. All of a sudden I couldn't help but feel the guilt of my actions bearing down on me. Although I didn't really know the two of them that well they were pretty much part of the few people I was moderately close with.

It was important to keep my cover though too seeing as how they were Eliza's friends.

Sighing, I looked towards the side to see Evan staring confusedly and Utah smiling amusingly. Utah gave me a thumbs up and I was about to stick my tongue at him like the seven-year old I was supposed to be when Anna interrupted.

"Oh what a coincidence, you're the missing student from Edelstein elementary school Eli?" She smiled at me. I nodded my head and immediately her smile turned into a frown, uh oh.

Placing her hands on her hips she reprimanded me. "I'm happy that you were able to make friends with Evan, he certainly needs them," Insert an offended sounding _mom don't say that!_ From I'm sure you know who. "But it's not good to go off by yourself Eli! You're so young! You could have gotten lost, or kidnapped, or-"

"Yes I know, and I'm really sorry about that. I won't do it again. I promise." I interrupted her, not really wanting to know what else she was going to say. Really, I got the gist of it so all that other stuff isn't necessary.

Although... I wonder if I could be considered a bad person for crossing my fingers while saying that and not feeling the least bit guilty. It's not like I'm the only one who does it anyways.

* * *

So with that, Anna and Gustav led the tour around the pig farm with Utah and Evan helping out here and there. (They both glared at me as I happily stood and listened to Anna and Gustav talk while they ran around the farm getting stuff to show us all. Really though it was just karma. That's what they get for not telling me my class was taking a tour here. I probably could have discreetly shown up and pretend I had actually been there the entire time but _no_. That was too much to ask for.)

Overall the tour was rather boring but it ended nicely since we were able to have a picnic in one of the grassy fields by the farm. There was no bugs too so I was rather happy about it.

Evan and the rest of his family joined us too and I had the pleasure of introducing everyone to each other.

"_Macey, Luke, everyone else: This is Evan and his favorite animals are dragons."_

"_Wait what, when did I ever say that! They're your favorite anyways aren't they?"_

"_They can be both our favorites."_

"_I don't have a say in this don't I?"_

"_Oh good Evan you're learning."_

However, all good things must come to an end and soon enough Ms. Illia was telling all of us to clean up so that we could head on over to Ellinia already. I tried to clean _really_ slowly but Macey caught on to what I was doing and quickly threw away my trash while I was contemplating how well it would naturally degrade in the environment if I just left it there.

Moving on, mine and Evan's goodbye wasn't exactly teary or very sad at all. I bet that it was rather confusing on his part though.

"_Okay Evan, don't forget to write to me okay? I expect a letter to be waiting for me when I get home got it?"_

"_Yeah sure, I'll send you a bunch of letters. It'll be like we're actually face to face talking to each other."_

"_Heh, yeah I suppose so. Oh and Evan?_

"_What?"_

"_Don't trust strangers okay? You never know what their intentions may be." _

"_Huh? What does intentions mean? And you know you were a stranger when I first met you too."_

"_Fine, don't trust creepy strangers- I'm coming Ms. Illia! Sheesh, bye Evan!" _

Yay for foreshadowing. It's sort of like that at least. Maybe this time around Evan won't cause too much trouble for Aran. After all it was because of Evan helping out that Black Wings dude that Aran had to fix things up right? Ah, oh well. If that wasn't the case then my advice is still good.

Anyways, looks like the next stop for this island tour is Ellinia. I hope I don't meet anyone I know there. Meeting Evan was enough of a surprise for me.

… I just jinxed myself didn't I.

Shit.

* * *

**AN: Okay so this chapter is late, I know that. **

**This chapter is kind of short, I know that too.**

**Super sorry for the lateness. I was stressing over my waltz routine for P.E for the last couple of days so I couldn't really concentrate on writing.**

**Next chapter is going to be pretty long though if things go as planned so I'll make sure to get it started on as soon as possible. Tomorrow most likely, yeah probably.**

**Next Time on Past The Screen: Stalkers and Magic (For real now) **

**[Stats] **

**Started Writing: 4/29/14 **

**Finished Writing: 5/9/14**


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